Foxconn To Invest $100 Million In UW-Madison And Racine County

Foxconn's downtown Milwaukee location is in a former Northwestern Mutual building.

Michelle Maternowski

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WUWM's Chuck Quirmbach reports on Foxconn's Monday announcement that it will invest $100 million in UW-Madison.

Foxconn has pledged $100 million to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a research institute in Racine County and for innovation research on the Madison campus.

While the company continues to build its electronics factory complex in Mount Pleasant, Foxconn says it wants a strong university partner to help develop a statewide environment for research and development in medical science, computers and materials science. Under agreements signed Monday, the UW-Madison will be that collaborator.

UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank told a news conference that she's very excited. "We're committed to pursuing our shared agenda — to spark innovation and deepen research in critical areas, both here, and in Racine. To expand opportunities for students to learn critical skills at UW-Madison and to keep those students here in Wisconsin with work opportunities at Foxconn and other exciting hi-tech environments, " Blank said.

The bulk of the $100 million Foxconn is pledging to the partnership will go to a new interdisciplinary building for the UW-Madison College of Engineering, she says. The campus will also try to raise an additional $100 million for related research. Foxconn says some of the funds will go toward a Foxconn Institute for Research in Science and Technology, or FIRST, which will provide funding on practical topics at its Mount Pleasant factory.

"There's a more cynical view that they're doing this because the project isn't as popular as they would have thought and giving to the university maybe is a good way to curry some favor with the state."

A Milwaukee business reporter who's been covering Foxconn says with so much money involved, Monday's announcement is significant. Arthur Thomas of Biz Times-Milwaukee says you can look at it a couple of ways: "Foxconn has kind of talked since it chose Wisconsin about wanting to have these partnerships — whether with companies or with universities all around the state. And so, one idea is that this a culmination of that."

He continued, "There's a more cynical view that they're doing this because the project isn't as popular as they would have thought and giving to the university maybe is a good way to curry some favor with the state."

Thomas says polls show the State of Wisconsin's $3 billion incentive package for Foxconn remains very unpopular in the Madison area and some other communities. But he says he isn't sure the $100 million investment in the UW will change many minds.

Support is provided by Dr. Lawrence and Mrs. Hannah Goodman for Innovation reporting.

President Trump travels to Wisconsin on Thursday, for the groundbreaking of an enormous Foxconn electronics plant that state officials hope will help turn the region into the next Silicon Valley.

But the $10 billion plant faces continuing skepticism over the nearly $4 billion package of incentives that state and local officials paid out to lure the Taiwan-based company to the area a half hour south of Milwaukee.

President Donald Trump appeared in Mount Pleasant midday on Thursday to break ground on the huge Foxconn LCD screen plant that's being built in the Racine County community. He spoke briefly at the ceremony, telling Foxconn CEO Terry Gou that Foxconn will "love Wisconsin."

Trump, Gou, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Christopher Murodock, Wisconsin's first Foxconn employee, used shovels with gold-colored handles to turn over the dirt.

President Trump will be in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, on Thursday for the groundbreaking of Foxconn’s giant LCD manufacturing plant. The Taiwan-based company is building a $10 billion complex in Racine County and promising up to 13,000 jobs. In exchange, state and local officials offered Foxconn more than $4 billion in tax incentives, prompting cries of corporate welfare. There are also concerns to about the impact on air and water quality the operation would have on the region.

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